11/22/09

My latest kitchen experiment. I had posted a picture of this creation on twitter and everyone wanted to know where, when, who....NOW! So, I rushed to type up the recipe and get it out to you. Yes, these were seriously good muffins. I mean really good. A great muffin base that melded perfectly with the mascarpone stuffing. I hate boring muffins, I know I've said this before, but what is the point of eating a boring muffin? All those calories wasted for nothing. If I'm going to have fat and sugar it better be good. Normally I do not eat what I bake, I only taste-test and then away they go to a good home, where they are pampered, loved and sincerely appreciated. If I ate everything I baked I'd be 500 pounds. (I'd be a hot looking 500 pound babe, just so you know) BUT with these muffins my friends I had two muffins. I could not help myself. These are also very pretty to look at; might be a good breakfast treat for your Thanksgiving morning if you have company over. Easy peasy to make too.

¼ cup or less of crushed walnuts or pecans (for garnish)
Cinnamon-sugar mixture to sprinkle on tops of muffins before baking.

In a medium bowl, combine all purpose flour, baking powder, salt, baking soda and ground nutmeg. Set aside. In a large bowl combine cream, buttermilk, sweet potato puree and vanilla extract. Set aside.
In a large bowl, cream the butter and dark brown sugar with an electric mixer, until fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.
Alternately mix in dry and wet ingredients into the butter, starting and ending with the dry; mix only until each addition is incorporated -- Please do not overmix.
Coat a muffin pan with nonstick spray and fill muffin cups 1/2 full. Sprinkle the tops of the muffins with a generous amount of cinnamon-sugar mixture. Bake in a 350 degree oven for 20-25 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the muffin comes out clean. (mine were done at the 20 minute mark).

For the stuffing: combine all ingredients and beat with an electric mixer or with stand mixer. Beat until well incorporated. To fill the muffins, all I did was cut out a large hole in the tops of the muffins and filled them with the stuffing. Use a pastry bag and pipe in the stuffing. If you don’t have a pastry bag you can use a plastic ziplock bag and snip a small hole at one of the edges. Decorate the tops of the muffins with crushed walnuts or pecans.

59 comments:

oh my goodness- first of all...BEAUTIFUL photography. And how yummy do those look? Its like a WAY better version of a carrot cake/cream cheese muffin. When does your bakery open? I want to place the first order :)

Haha, you definitely would be a hot 500 pounder, but I know what you mean about giving away the baked goods. That's probably the only good thing about working in a place with so many people. I give it all away! I have some mascarpone coming to room temp right now..wish I could make these with it!

Dawn I don't know where you get these ideas from. Its like you take a poll of universally awesome tastes and mix them together with a sugar covered spoon. I'm glad you did this, especially because we think the same calorie wise.

Jessica: you can make your own sweet potato puree by baking sweet potatoes till done; remove skin; and puree in blender with a bit of salt & pepper. Don't put them in blender while potatoes are still hot though, let them cool.

Wow! And from the angle of the photo they look HUGE! See, I am not alone in my baking mind set. I bake and bring to work-keeps it off my hips (well, not enough) and I get the joy of creating. Ahh, happy, happy, happy.

These look amazing! I actually went to Williams Sonoma today to buy the crown muffin tin just so I could make them. One question though...you say to fill muffin tins half full. In the crown muffin pan did you fill up to the indentation? I just want to make sure I get a big muffin top...the muffins, not me:) Also, do you think pumpkin would be ok?

I made these this morning; just waiting for them to cool. My filling didn't turn out like yours (mine's darker and I think the butter wasn't warm enough) but it's still tasty. Can wait to try the final result!

about vanilla sugar blog

Unique eats, creative recipes, as simple as possible.What drives me to create? Seeing dishes in restaurants, meals created on TV, recipes in cookbooks/online, and I always think to myself why didn’t they add this or why did they leave out that? Love to question, love to research, and love to learn about combining different flavors and textures in recipes.Recipe creations please email: vanillasugarblog@aol.com